STANFORD — As 16 players got plucked off the 49ers’ roster in the past week, their financial predicament kept general manager John Lynch from restocking the pond with big-name, big-money free agents.
“It’s terrible sitting on your hands,” Lynch said.
He’s not sitting idle. Lynch attended pro day workouts at the University of Oregon on Tuesday and at his alma mater Stanford on Wednesday. Five weeks remain until a NFL Draft that’s critical to finding the 49ers’ replacements.
“We’re excited about the way this draft stacks up and how our picks are coming together,” Lynch said in an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Bay Area News Group and The Athletic. “The process, this is the fun part.”
Last week was not so fun. Their roster is a shell of their 2023 team’s Super Bowl lineup. Among last week’s roster casualties were defensive linemen Leonard Floyd and Maliek Collins, both of whom got released despite playing every game.
“The bottom line is you’re always looking years out,” Lynch said. “As we forecasted, we obviously have some big things coming our way, and you have to clear the requisite room to be able to do that.”
The biggest thing on the horizon in a contract extension they’re negotiating for quarterback Brock Purdy, who figures to join other quarterbacks making at least $50 million annually.
Lynch kept private any updates on extensions for Purdy, as well as tight end George Kittle and linebacker Fred Warner. “We never talk (publicly about contracts) but we love all those guys,” Lynch added.
Even with those guys, the 49ers failed in last season’s push to return to the Super Bowl, instead getting waylaid by injuries and personal tragedies en route to a 6-11, last-place finish.
“You don’t want to get to a point where you have to do things to keep your roster afloat. You want to have that flexibility,” Lynch added. “That’s the one thing people should realize: We’ve been really blessed and fortunate that ownership has allowed us to go and last year we had such a good roster that we double-downed and said ‘Let’s go for this thing.’
“We pushed kind of all the chips in knowing at some point you’d have to have the reset, and this was the year.”
Aside from re-signing Kyle Juszczyk (two years, $8 million) only days after releasing him, the 49ers’ biggest commitments have been to tight end Luke Farrell (three years, $20 million), wide receiver Demarcus Robinson (two years, $9.5 million), and quarterback Mac Jones (two years, $7 million). Siran Neal, a special-teams ace and cornerback, signed a two-year deal Tuesday, after one-year deals last week landed linebacker Luke Gifford, cornerback Tre Brown, long snapper Jon Weeks, and safeties Jason Pinnock and Richie Grant.
“We like the adds we made,” Lynch said. “It’s not the biggest names, like years past, but we like the guys we’ve added to our team.”
Jones’ addition comes four years after the 49ers conducted a flood of Zoom interviews with him ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft, only to use the No. 3 pick on Trey Lance. Lynch indicated Wednesday that the 49ers are somewhat set at quarterback with Jones and Tanner Mordecai backing up Purdy.
So far, 16 players have signed elsewhere, including a handful of starters and fan favorites: linebacker Dre Greenlaw, safety Talanoa Hufanga, wide receiver Deebo Samuel, cornerback Charvarius Ward, guard Aaron Banks and running backs Jordan Mason and Elijah Mitchell.
Asked specifically about a late push to keep Greenlaw from signing with Denver, Lynch said: “We’ve all seen when healthy what a fabulous player he is. He’s a difference maker. Really grateful to Dre for all the contributions he made to the Niners. Special player. It’s hard to see guys like that leave but it’s part of this business. You can’t keep them all.”
Lynch signaled the 49ers’ roster reshuffling a month ago at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, noting they needed to throttle back from their cash-spending ways and “reset” and “recalibrate” to a younger corps.
So what in the heck happened with fullback Kyle Juszczyk? Released Tuesday, Juszczyk tested free agency and circled back Saturday on a two-year, $8 million deal that became official Wednesday. Lynch said the new deal offers “some clarity so we’re not doing this every year with him. The guy’s been a tremendous player.”
Juszczyk visited the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday and spoke with other teams.
“It worked out. He was able to go see what was there. Sometimes you have to go through that process to know how much this place meant to him,” Lynch said. ” We did what we could do at the end and we met at a place we were both happy. We’re thrilled to have him back. He’s been a big part. The opportunity to have a guy like that up on the (franchise’s) 10-year Wall, it meant something to us and to him.”
The 49ers have yet to sign any projected starter in what’s been a cost-conscious, slow-playing approach to free agency.
Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan are entering their ninth season as the 49ers’ brass, and this is the second draft in which Tariq Ahmad and R.J. Gillen have served as co-directors of player personnel, in the wake of Adam Peters’ departure to become Washington’s general manager.
“I’m real proud of our staff. It means we’ve acquired a lot of talented people when our backups are making $15 million and turned down more money to take that offer,” Lynch said. “Our scouts should take a bow because they’ve done a really nice job acquiring talent.
“Maybe that lets you know how good of a roster I believe that we did have,” Lynch added. “That’s the past and now we move forward. We have to rely on the fact of going back to work.”
Eleven picks await in the draft, starting at No. 11 overall.
Added Lynch: “I love the draft, because I like to say it’s the greatest representation of our organization coming together and gaining consensus on players and it’s a great opportunity to kind of refuel your team, and that’s what we’re looking for.”
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